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"I'm looking at 68 polls a week," the pudgy college dropout and Deputy White House Chief of Staff told NPR's Robert Siegel. "You may be looking at four or five public polls a week that talk about attitudes nationally, but that do not in -- impact the outcome of the races." "... You've seen the DeWine and the Santorum race?" Siegel asked. "I d -- I -- d -- I don't want to -- yeah, l -- l -- look. I'm looking at all --" Rove stammered, channeling Porky Pig. "I'm looking at all these, Robert, and adding 'em up, and I add up to a Republican Senate and a Republican House. You may end up with a different math, but you're entitled to your math and I'm entitled to 'The Math.'"

"Joe Lieberman's defeat is evidence of a startling political shift," the Economist wrote in an August 10, 2006 article titled "America's anti-war center begins to hold." Businessman Ned Lamont defeated Lieberman in the Connecticut senatorial primary on August 8 by a 52% to 48% margin. According to state statistics 14,000 voters changed their registration from unaffiliated to Democrat to vote in the primary, while another 14,000 new voters registered as Democrats. Voter turnout, normally around 25% for primary elections in Connecticut, exceeded 40%. Calling Lamont's victory "astonishing and revealing," the Economist noted that Lieberman lost because of his "enthusiasm" for the Iraq war, and for his view that criticism of the commander-in-chief in time of war is dangerous.

The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company was incorporated in 1840 in the UK by a Royal Charter, which explains why the company name doesn't carry the more recent identifiers PLC or LLC. The firm's flag includes the colors of the Spanish and Portuguese flags -- a reference to the Iberian Peninsula that was home to its earliest shipping destinations. "Oriental" refers to the company's early expansion to India, Australia, and the Far East providing Imperial mail service along with its commercial trade.

Lost in the media hubbub over Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, and Karl Rove's role in disclosing the identity of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame, was a brief item reported by ABC News on July 14. In a follow-up to the London bombings of July 7, investigative reporter Brian Ross disclosed that maps of the London subway system, and names linked to a cell in Luton, England, where the July 7 bombers set out on their mission, had been found on the computer of Pakistani computer technician Naeem Noor Khan, who was arrested a year ago. What even Ross's report did not highlight, however, was that, like Valerie Plame, Khan had been providing intelligence to US authorities when his identity was revealed directly or indirectly by the Bush administration, in an action apparently timed for maximum political impact. The disclosure compromised terrorist investigations in progress in Britain and elsewhere, possibly including individuals who would eventually participate in the London attacks.

by John NicholsReprinted from the Madison, WI Capital Times with permission.

Radio and television personalities in the United States were hysterical because after last week's bombings in London, too few Londoners were willing to be props for their right-wing ranting. After one stoic Brit, who had blood on the side of his face, calmly described climbing out of a smoke-filled subway station, a Fox anchor exclaimed, "That man's obviously in shock."

Actually, the man appeared to be completely in control of his faculties, as did the British journalists who appeared that evening on Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor." Host Bill O'Reilly, the king of the hysterics, had a hard time with the Brits, who simply were not as feverish as he had hoped - and who were genuinely bemused when he started ranting about how much he hated Britain's highly regarded Guardian newspaper.

In the fall of 2004 the Program on International Policy Attitudes conducted two polls of Bush and Kerry supporters. A September poll focused on foreign policy issues, including questions about Iraq and terrorism, whether the US should pursue a multilateral approach to national security, and underlying issues such as US participation in international treaties. An October poll compared public perceptions to reality on a range of questions, including justifications for the war in Iraq, foreign attitudes toward the US, and foreign policy positions of public officials. (Candidate positions were documented from their own statements as recorded by a variety of sources, including the Council on Foreign Relations election web site, answers given to a questionnaire from Time magazine, and official statements from the State Department and the Office of Management and Budget.)